Jason arrived at exactly two to pick me up. While they wheeled me down to the nurses’ station to get my release papers, I got suspicious about why Jason was smiling so damn much, so I asked him why.
He laughed and told me, “No reason! Just happy my Boo is coming home. Things haven’t been the same without you.”
I lifted one of my feet up off the slat on the wheelchair and kicked him lightly in the shin. “Things better not be the same. I’m not easily replaceable, you know?”
He knelt down and kissed me. “You could never be replaced.”
Once we were in the car headed home, we talked about what the children did and did not know about the recent turn of events. The twins were too young to understand anything more than the mere fact I had been away for a couple of weeks. Peter, on the other hand, was another matter altogether. Jason comforted me and assured me Peter didn’t know anything except I had been involved in some sort of automobile accident and had to stay in the hospital until I got better.
I was relieved. Jason held my hand the rest of the way home, telling me all the wonderful things he had planned out for our future, including buying some land up in the mountains, designing and building us a summer home. That brought a smile to my face; a summer home had always been a big dream of mine. It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford it. It was just the lack of free time that had held us back. Jason told me he was willing to talk to his partners and make the time to do it if I was willing to do the same. I quickly replied, “Not a problem, Boo. Now’s the time to do everything we’ve ever dreamed of. Life is too short not to.”
When we walked in the front door, I was taken aback when I saw the Welcome Home banner, flowers, and balloons everywhere. Momma was standing there in the middle of the great room and had all three kids dressed alike in stonewashed jeans and red T-shirts. Kayla had an abundance of red ribbons in her hair. She reminded me of a picture of me when I was a little girl in a similar outfit.
Peter was kneeling on the floor, and he had his arms around a Dalmatian puppy with a huge red ribbon attached to his flea collar. “Mommy, this is Spot! Daddy bought him for you!”
I rushed over and hugged all my kids and even thedog. Jason had gone out and found me a dog just like the one that I used to feed my vegetables to under the dining room table as a child, who had been hit by a car. He obviously had a little help from my mother: the puppy was the spitting image of the original Spot and could’ve passed for his grandchild.
Peter helped Jason fire up the gas grill on the patio while I played some board games with the twins. They showed me some of the new toys their grandmother had gotten them while I was away. My mother loved to spoil her grandkids and went overboard in my absence, knowing I couldn’t object.
The phone rang. I yelled out to Jason, “I’ll get it!” I picked up the cordless and said, “Hello.” There was no answer, but I could hear someone breathing heavily on the other end. “Hello? Who’s there?” Still nothing but the breathing, and then the line went dead.
Jason came into the house to retrieve the steaks and chicken breasts for the grill. “Who was it, baby?”
I shrugged my shoulders and whispered, “Wrong number, I guess.”
We had a lovely picnic on the screened-in porch. Afterward, my mother went home to spend some time with her husband, who I’m sure felt mad neglected by that time. Jason decided to keep the live-in sitter a while longer. He had given her two weeks’ notice, figuring that would be enough time for me to get readjusted to family life.
The sitter’s name was Angelique, and she was a college student, working on her undergraduate degree in business administration. She lived in a dorm on campus but took on the live-in position eagerly when she saw the ad on the bulletin board in the student union. She was a sweet girl and talked me half to death when she showedup at the house after her afternoon classes. She told me all about growing up in Maryland and how she chose to go to college in Atlanta because she wanted a change of pace and a break from her overbearing parents.
At about seven, I asked Angelique to start getting the kids ready for bed. I went up to the master bathroom to drown myself in a hot bath, since that was the only thing left to do after hugging my kids and feeding my face with some real food.
Jason joined me a few minutes later, locking the bedroom door and putting on some jazz before stripping down and getting in the tub. Something about the way he held me confirmed what I had hoped. The therapy sessions were working, and things would be way different.
He got behind me in the tub and kissed my ears and neck while he took a loofah sponge and
squeezed warm water all over my shoulders and breasts. He put the sponge down and grabbed them, one in each hand, rubbing his thumbs over my erect nipples.
I turned to the side so that I was sitting on his thigh in the tub, instead of between his legs, and we started tongue-kissing. He grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled my mouth closer into his so that his tongue could go deeper into my mouth. I broke the kiss just long enough to turn completely around and straddle my legs over his thighs. I locked my arms around his neck, and our kissing continued for several moments.
Jason caressed my ass cheeks, one in each hand, and I started to grind my pussy onto his dick in the warm water, letting the shaft of it rub between my thighs. He let go of one of my ass cheeks and cupped one of my breasts in his hand, bringing it up to his mouth and sucking on my nipple. I reached into the water and held his dick steady so I could climb on top of it. I sat down on itslowly. My ribs were still a bit sore from the accident, but there was no way I was missing out on the opportunity toreallymake love to Jason. I had wanted to for so long, he was finally receptive to my advances, and I was in heaven.
Jason let me ride his dick. For the first time, he let me be in the position of control—the one thing he had feared all those years—and from what I could tell and the sweet things he whispered to me, he loved every minute of it. We stayed in the tub until the water was almost freezing, and then he got out to get some towels. We dried each other off, and he carried me to our bed, where we made love again—another first. In all our years together, Jason had never been with me intimately more than once a night. He was no longer a two-minute brother either. In fact, he made love to me longer and harder than anyone. He surprised the hell out of me when he told me to turn over and then entered me from behind. I came all over the place, and he came all up in me.
I chided him, “Damn, Jason! I hope you didn’t get me pregnant!”
He chuckled. “Well, don’t worry about it if I did. I still have the umpire mask in the garage.”
We were about to drift off to sleep, with smiles on both of our faces, when the phone rang. I glanced over at the clock and realized it was well after midnight. I reached for the phone, since it was on my side of the bed. “Hello.”
Nothing. “Hello!”
All I got back in reply was a single word. The caller’s voice was being distorted by a rag or something held over the phone. The single word was “Bitch!”
They hung up, and so did I. Jason sat up in the bed, “Who was that calling here so late?”
“I don’t know, baby. Let’s just get some sleep.” He lay back down, and I sought comfort by laying my head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat like I always did when I was scared. I had trouble falling asleep, wondering who the hell it could’ve been and if it was the same person who’d called earlier, breathing heavily on the phone. I came to the conclusion it could have only been one of two people; Dempsey or Tyson. Both of their whereabouts were still a mystery. I made a mental note to myself to make a stop on my way home from work the next day. I would go buy me a freakin’ gun.
As planned, I returned to work the very next day after my release from the hospital. It was very important for me to try to pick up all of the pieces of my life and move on. The last thing Marcella told me before my release was, “Always remember the past is a guiding post and not a hitching post. You must learn from your mistakes and keep on going.”She was right, and that was exactly what I intended to do. Everyone was very pleasant to me upon my return to the office, and most had the common sense and decency not to pry into my personal life. A couple of the water-cooler gossipmongers tried to get in my business, but I set them straight fast. I brazenly reminded them I was the head of the company; they were employees and needed to remember where their bread and butter came from. After that, they didn’t have a damn thing to say and expeditiously returned to work.
I called Jason at his office to see if he wanted to have lunch with me. His secretary, Allison, got bitchy with me on the phone. She had been cool with me until she called me a tramp that day, and I wasn’t about to forget that. I wanted her ass gone, and after a few conversations withJason, I was sure she would be, if for no other reason than to make me happy. She was probably one of the women that had been throwing pussy at him all along. The hoochie had to go—no if, ands, or buts. I wasn’t about to be subjected to her attitude every time I called or went by my husband’s firm.
